Plans are underway to move a 48km section of Kruger National Park specifically to allow for trophy hunting.

The new section will be opened as an exclusive private nature reserve where hunters would target animals like elephant and buffalo for contracted killing. “This cannot be disguised as anything but a green light for hunting in Kruger National Park, which makes no ecological, biological, ethical or economic sense,” said Jason Bell-Leask of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

According to CapeNature’s Biodiversity Crime Unit (BCU) the 200kg of illegal ivory being held in Stellenbosch is just the tip of the iceberg.

Using methods similar to the drug mule system which moves huge amounts of drugs around the world, the biocriminal syndicates have targeted the indigenous fauna and flora of the Western Cape as it is a small region with very high biodiversity.

The BCU programme manager, Paul Gildenhuys, said that “The last syndicate group was made up of three Slovakians and one Czech who were caught smuggling close to 100 Angulate tortoises.”

Illegal trading has grown with the rise of internet trading with collectors placing requests for exotic plants and animals on internet forums.  Syndicates then contact potential buyers and arrange transactions.  The Cape Times has been able to locate at least two websites where trading takes place.

You may not have heard of Ug99 yet, but, if its rapid spread continues unchecked, chances are you will not only be hearing about it, but you’ll be paying for it too. That’s because this fast-spreading strain of the fungus that causes stem rust–a seemingly unstoppable plant disease–and is now spreading around the globe and threatening to devastate the world’s wheat harvest.
One hopeful remedy may in fact lay in certain native, durum wheat species (”landraces”) found only in certain African nations–in particular, Ethiopia–which are believed to possess “slow rusting” genes. These native durum wheats are stronger (durum is Latin for “hard”) than7  other strains and originally evolved under much different environmental conditions than European and Western Hemisphere varieties. These durum landraces have most likely evolved slight gene variations as a result. These variations in gene sequences (and/or their expression in the wild), it is believed, can confer survival advantages to the plants when transplanted in a different locale.

Currently, as reported in Science (June 12 , 2009), at least one plant geneticist–Francis Ogbomaya of ICARDA {International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas) in Syria–is using “gene mapping” to validate this claim (i.e., that they possess genes that resist stem rust disease). The seeds he is using to do this come from ICARDA, but ICARDA’s collection of durham wheat seeds is limited, unlike Ethiopia’s Seed Bank which is believed to house the greatest collection of native wheat varieties.

Poachers from China and Vietnam have found a loophole for obtaining rhino horn by participating in legal trophy hunts in South Africa - and then having the horns shipped to Asia for illegal sale.
Last week, members of PHASA (Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa) were advised not to “book and conduct hunts with nationals from Vietnam or other Far Eastern countries” until the government had “removed this abuse of the SA legal system.”

The most recent example of this “system abuse” was the incident in May, when Dwesa Nature Reserve awarded the “right” to kill 6 rhino to the highest bidder - African Scent Safaris. It was then confirmed that Vietnamese clients of African Scent Safaris killed two rhino and had the horns exported to Vietnam.

This also brings into question whether or not SANParks’ recent auction of White Rhinos from Kruger NP could be contributing to the exploitation of legal trophy hunting by poachers from China and other Asian countries.

How SANParks’ rhino auctions may be creating a poaching “loophole”

More than 20,000 residents in 63 informal settlements in the South African port city of Cape Town have been affected by severe winter storms.

Charlotte Powell, spokesperson for the city's Disaster Risk Management department, told IRIN: "The whole environment is wet."

She said the city had established six emergency shelters to provide hot meals and disburse humanitarian assistance, such as blankets, non-perishable foods and baby formula, after an appeal to Cape Town's residents for donations.

Unlike much of South Africa, Cape Town experiences its main rainfall during the winter months from May to September, while rapid urbanization has resulted in the establishment of informal settlements on land that is often unsuitable.

Powell said people arriving in the city during the summer months, when rainfall is low, were often not aware until the winter months that they had built rudimentary shelters on water courses or wetlands, which were prone to flooding.

The weather forecast for the next few days is that the rain will stop, followed by clear skies and low temperatures.

El Nino Conditions Could Indicate Drought in the Next Six Months for South Africa.

During the past month the Equatorial Pacific Ocean sea-surface temperatures have risen indicating a transition into El Nino conditions according to the South African Weather Service (SAWS).

Based on information from the International Institute for Climate and Society and the Climate Prediction Centre in the United States as well as its own model, SAWS has said that there is a 50 percent chance of an El Nino event in the next six months at least.

The forecasts show that the 2009/10 El Nino event may not be that strong, however, the intensity of El Nino did not indicate how much the rainfall was influenced.

“The relatively weak El Nino events at the beginning of the 1990s were associated with intense drought over the region” said SAWS.

El Nino is a Pacific Ocean phenomenon.

Table Mountain has been voted as one of the top 77 sites selected from over 261 participants from around the globe.

South Africa’s famous landmark, and the only official nominee, beat contenders in the same category such as Mount Everest, Mount Fiji and K2 in the second round of the international competition.

Table Mountain needed to be ranked in the top 11 of its category – mountains and volcanoes.  This international competition relies solely on votes from the public.

Other categories include islands, lakes, waterfalls, forests, ice formations and seascapes.

On July 21, 2009 a panel of experts will announce their selection of 28 finalists with four from each category, after which the third and final phase of public voting will begin.

Sabine Lehmann, CEO of Table Mountain Cableway, who formed the official supporting committee to promote Table Mountain as a nominee said, “We are thrilled at the enormous level of support and votes from the citizens of South Africa as well as fans around the globe.”

A number of celebrities and sport stars such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, comedian Marc Lottering, radio DJ Natallie Becker and the Proteas all cast their vote for Table Mountain’s New Seven Wonders of Nature Campaign.

Climate change will significantly impact on all facets of the continent's economic and social well-being, but particularly in agriculture and food security, says Environment and Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.

"The impact of climate change is already manifesting itself in ever-increasing numbers of extreme events that we are experiencing in Africa such as droughts and floods."

Speaking to BuaNews in Sirte, Libya, at the 13th African Union Summit, the minister said Africa was least responsible for climate change, yet most vulnerable to its impact.

"The continent is also the least able to afford the costs of responding to and addressing climate change. African countries need to take decisive action," she said.

Climate change is one of Africa's biggest long-term challenges as desertification and drought devastate many rural areas. "We cannot place our long term development, competitiveness and survival on the altar, in the face of the additional climate change burden, by not taking action in the short and medium term."

In the Kruger National Park forty five white rhino and two highly endangered black rhino have been poached since the beginning of 2008.

Sanparks staff members have been found to be involved with poaching.  One member in the Kruger National Park and one in the Table Mountain National Park were found in possession of poached fauna and both have been fired.

Last December, a traffic officer, a staff member of the Kruger was arrested with rhino horn.  After a department inquiry he was fired and now faces criminal charges.

Gareth Morgan of the DA enquired about poaching in the countries national parks and figures were given to him by Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.

In the Kruger National Park, as well as the rhino, since the beginning of 2008, 15 buffalo, 3 lion, 2 giraffe, 8 kudu, 5 zebra, 87 impala and about 7000 fish have been poached.

Since the beginning of last year 5676 abalone, 20 765 fish, 2677 plants, 210 rock lobsters and 2 baboons have been poached in the Table Mountain National Park.

In September 2008 a ranger sergeant from the Table Mountain National Park was arrested for having poached 122 abalone. After an internal inquiry he was fired and is facing criminal charges.

Update: It appears that despite efforts by South African animal rights activists to stop the annual cull of the Cape Fur seals along the country's coast, Namibia's seal-hunting season opened on Wednesday.

While there has so far been no culling activity, industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "the cull will go ahead".

For the current season, the ministry of fisheries put out a quota of 86 000 seal pups and 6 000 bulls per year for three years to contain the population of an estimated 650 000 seals inhabiting Namibia's coastal waters.

South Africa's greenhouse gas emissions per capita are similar to that of industrialised countries, partly because of its strong reliance on coal, an environmental organisation said last Wednesday.

"South Africa's emissions are very high," said the World Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) local climate change manager, Richard Worthington.

"It is well above the developing country average partly because of our strong dependence on coal."

"President  Zuma must focus on the need to keep global warming below two degrees and not be deterred by vested interests opposed to change," he said.
 
Zuma will attend the summit in July as part of the G5 delegation, which will also include leaders from China, India, Mexico and Brazil.

South Africa has so far provided the most comprehensive plan of the G5 countries on options to reduce carbon emissions. It includes a renewable energy target of 10 000GWh by 2013 and a proposal for developing countries to register projects to combat climate change.

“The government has the power and legislation to enforce a reduction in carbon emissions”.

Navigating through stormy seas the Safmarine Meru, en route to Cape Town from Port Elizabeth lost 21 containers as it was battered by 100km/h winds and swells higher than 12 m.

Safmarine has appointed Svitzer Salvage to locate and recover the lost containers.

Three of the containers were tanks containing the hazardous chemical cresylic acid.   Two have been washed ashore – one at Camps Bay and the other at Sea Point.

Contact with the chemical Cresol can cause burns, blisters, scarring and in the worst case, death.  The public has been warned to keep well away from the vicinity of the containers.

Hazardous material experts dressed in silver suits and gas masks have been attending to the containers which have washed ashore while the remainder of the 21 containers pose a grave danger to sailing vessels.

A container will submerge itself just under the water, and if hit by a small vessel there could be catastrophic consequences.

A large vessel could also be seriously damaged if it were to collide with the submerged container.

Maritime lawyers have said that a major oil spill at this time could “cripple” South Africa due to damage costs as the Department of Transport has not promulgated legislation needed to be able to access international funding to pay for oil spill damages and clean-ups.